How We Do Recommendations for Younger Readers

NoveList has hand-crafted recommendations created by librarians, teachers, and book experts. We know exactly where our recommendations come from -- and they’re pretty smart people.

Our Process

Our experts evaluate and craft as many recommendations as possible by hand. If we haven't yet been able to handwrite the recommendation, our sophisticated algorithm considers subjects, our signature appeal terms, and other pieces of our extensive metadata to create additional recommendations. We regularly fine-tune our processes, always with the goal of matching readers with their perfect books. Learn more about how we do the work.

By Librarians, For Librarians

NoveList is created by librarians, for librarians. We have over 25 librarians on staff, plus others from around the country who contribute their expertise. Read more about our team.

Elements of a Good Recommendation

The first element of a good recommendation is trust. If you trust the source, you have confidence in the quality of the recommendation. We also believe that a recommendation has to be meaningful and we don't recommend obvious books, like the next in a series or another by the same author. Our goal is to provide recommendations that go beyond the obvious, are insightful and thoughtful, and are meaningful to readers.

You Talk, We Listen

We take your feedback seriously. If you have input about our recommendations or other content, you have several options. Every page in NoveList has a feedback button at the top – use it to tell us anything. We also have a thumbs-up/thumbs-down feature where you can let us know if you agree with our recommendations.